New Haven zoners approve homeless shelter for youth, renovation of possible frat house

By Mary O’Leary moleary@nhregister.com @nhrmoleary on Twitter

Published 11:59 pm, Tuesday, December 8, 2015

NEW HAVEN >> Officials Tuesday unamimously approved a special exception for a residential shelter for homeless youth in the city, a project that drew high praise from a number of citizens.

The approval was granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals, which also, in separate action, granted variances for renovation of 48 Dixwell Ave. from a four-apartment building to a large two-family that a Yale fraternity has expressed interest in occupying.

As for the shelter, a portion of a community center run by Bethel AME Church at 654 Orchard St. will be converted to a 15-bed place for young men ages 17 to 24 to stay.

They are among the estimated 400 homeless youths who “couch surf, nightly, for lack of a place to live,” according to a city study.

The 23,000-square-foot community center will be leased by the city from Bethel with the shelter taking up some 900 square feet on the first floor. It will have its own separate entrance, with medical and mental help staff on site.

The brainchild of Jason Bartlett, the city’s youth director, the shelter will be part of The Escape, a teen activity and drop-in center where programs will be run throughout the day.

While the emphasis for those in the shelter will be on staying in school and preparing for the working world, there will be plenty of activities for a range of youths from age 13 to 24, including a black-box theater, a multi-purpose room, a gym, a greenhouse and garden.

“There will be a vibrant, constant use of the building,” Bartlett told the zoning board.

Alder Claudette Robinson-Thorpe of Beaver Hills was among the original three alders who scoped out The Door, a youth center in New York City that became a blueprint for The Escape.

She told the board Tuesday that the shelter and the community center were part of a promise from the alders to take care of the city’s youth.

State Sen. Joseph Crisco, D-Woodbridge, who is on the advisory council for The Escape, called it a “magnificant venture,” that he was proud to be associated with. “It will be a model for the state,” he predicted.

“We need to get teens off the street with wrap-around services” and moving toward self-sufficiency,” Meredith Benson of Bethel told the zoners.

Neighbor Mary Brown, who lives behind the proposed youth center, feared there will be uptick in crime and she suggested the center go elswhere.

Bartlett said there there will be security at the shelter and he promised it will be a good neighbor to Brown.

As for the residence at 48 Dixwell Ave., the building department halted construction when it believed that the work on the the third floor, where the roof had been extended, went beyond its building permit.

The city said there was a misunderstanding on the scope of the approved work and recommended that it be given the necessary variances for the work already completed.

Attorney Bernard Pellegrino said Spencer Tracey, who is leasing the property, rescued it from the wrecking ball and has upgraded the structurally unsafe building, while still maintaining some of its historic elements.

Pellegrino said the third-floor wall had to be raised to be compliant with building code.

The Yale fraternity, Chi Psi, has been looking for a home for some time now after the social club was reactivated in 2013 after 50 years.

Several stories in the Yale Daily News said the fraternity planned to move into 48 Dixwell when the work was finished.

Randy Ruben Rodrigues, who runs R Kids, across from 48 Dixwell Ave., did not want drunken college students in the area, who she said were allegedly responsible for vandalism behind her property.

“Eight fraternity guys is trouble,” Rodrigues said.

She also was interested in buying the property herself, but thought it had to be remodeled to historic standards.

The BZA made it clear that it does not have a say over who the renters can be, while zoning officials said the building code allows four unrelated persons to live together for a total of 8 such individudals in the two new apartments created through the renovation.

BZA Chair Pat King said if there are issues with disruptive behavior that was for other city departments to deal with.

Neither Pellegrino nore Tracey had any comment on the rental situation.